The ballroom was beautifully decorated with an abundance of live plants and animals and lighting that made it seem like a warm spring day. The Garden of Eden theme was something she’d personally approved. She sniffed once, reminded of her late Nehebkau. The albino cobra would have loved what Syler had done.

When they were all in place, Syler raised his hand. “Good nobles of the five families, welcome to my home and to the Dominus ball in honor of Lady Tatiana, newly appointed Dominus of the House of Tepes, and her consort, Lord Octavian.”

Polite clapping answered him. Tatiana merely gazed out across the crowd, recognizing some faces and others not at all. It mattered little. They needed to know her; she didn’t need to know them.

Syler continued, his voice carrying effortlessly across the vast space. “I am also honored to introduce the newest member of the nobility. She is a gift from the ancient ones to Lady Tatiana, the first of our kind to be born vampire.” He held his hand out toward Tatiana. “I present to you Princess Lilith.”

At the end of Syler’s prearranged introduction, Tatiana turned Lilith to face the crowd and raised her overhead. Lilith laughed and kicked her feet, no doubt thinking it was playtime. A few of the faces in the crowd softened, fear edged a few more, but the bulk of the nobility stared stone-faced, no doubt purposefully hiding their true feelings of jealousy or intimidation.

To turn the knife a little deeper, Tatiana smiled sweetly back at them and, bringing Lilith back into her safe embrace, calmly spoke. “Thank you for your abundant generosity, Lord Syler. My family and I are in your debt.” She moved from face to face. “I’m sure many of you are curious about Lilith. I cannot blame you. She is an extraordinary child. As Lord Syler indicated, she is the first of us to be born vampire.” She paused for effect. “And the first of us to be immune to the sun.”

The stoniness dropped away from all but a few faces. Yes, let them soak in that astonishing bit of news.

“She is truly the arrival of our next generation,” Lord Syler proclaimed. “Thank you all for coming. Now, please, enjoy the rest of your evening.” He snapped his fingers and servants came forward to pull out Tatiana’s and Daciana’s chairs. The music swelled again and the crowd returned to mingling, their topic of conversation no doubt what they’d just witnessed.

Tatiana sat and positioned Lilith on her lap facing the audience as everyone else on the dais took their chairs. A servant appeared at her right-hand side and filled her goblet with blood, but she paid him little attention. The crowd was far too interesting. All across the ballroom, nobles formed small circles, exchanged a few words, then glanced her way. She stared back imperiously at each prattling cluster.

Until she found one solitary noble tucked into a pocket of greenery. A highly gilded comarré hovered behind him. That combined with his exquisitely tailored clothing confirmed he had means. He spoke with no one, his gaze simply fixed on her. His face meant nothing to her, but something about him—the breadth of his shoulders, his loosely dangerous stance—felt familiar in a not unpleasant way. Perhaps they’d met at a previous engagement. A vampire of that size and bank account would be an invaluable addition to the team she planned to send to Paradise City. She would seek him out, find out who he was. Then make him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Doc stared blankly at his office door, his mind upstairs where Fi was asleep in the bed Heaven had once occupied. He should be there with her, but Heaven’s death had frayed into a thousand loose ends that only he could tie up. Most important, her father had to be called. Doc exhaled. Of all the things on his list, that was the one he dreaded the most.

Barasa was preparing her body for transportation back to Brazil and Omur was overseeing the cleanup of the arena. That was one thing he knew about. Back in the day before Sinjin had thrown him out for his curse, he’d been on a few cleanup crews. The arena was pretty sophisticated and the mechanics built in did most of the work of funneling the sand through a series of drains where it was steam cleaned and then pumped back in. The hard work was sweeping all that sand into the drains.

Maybe some hard work would be good. Being pride leader was a lot of sitting around and he wasn’t a sitting around kind of brother.

He shoved his chair back and headed out. A few minutes later, his fingers trailed across the Bast statue outside the arena, then he pushed through the doors.

A very startled Omur looked up from where he was sweeping. “Maddoc, I didn’t expect to see you here.” He dropped the push broom and hustled to the entrance, blocking Doc’s path. “How’s Fiona? She seemed pretty banged up. Is someone with her?”

Doc narrowed his eyes. “Isaiah’s with her and I don’t like that you’re implying I left her alone.”

“No, of course not. My apologies.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “I should probably get back to work. Thank you for stopping by.”

Doc looked past him. “Where’s your crew? This isn’t a one-man job.”

“They’re on break.”

Letting a few uncomfortable seconds tick by, Doc finally spoke. “Where are their brooms?”

Omur looked behind him, his gloved hands opening and closing. “They must have taken them with them.”

Doc crossed his arms. Enough was enough. “Lie to me again and I will remove you from my council.”

Omur’s eyes yellowed. “I would never…” He sighed and glanced behind him again, his shoulders bowing slightly. “Something has happened.”